Emmy Nominations 2019 rolled in this week and they might as well have had a warning for being an outright emotional roller coaster!
HBO seems to have hijacked the entire show with a record breaking 137 nominations across the platform, leaving its biggest competitor, Netflix, at a close second of 117 nominations.
The Good
‘Schitt’s Creek’ finally got nominated after 3 years of underrated TV presence on an unpopular network, making us fans gush with excitement as it outshines names like ‘The Big Bang Theory’ (TBBT). I can practically hear Catherine O’Hara exclaim “David, that’s outstanding!” – who has also been nominated for lead actress in a comedy series. Not having ‘TBBT’ or Jim Parsons in the major categories after its recent final season, is certainly enough to raise my eyebrow a tad bit, considering its dominating streak over the years.
Under the “Outstanding Comedy list”, shows like ‘Veep’, ‘Barry‘ and ‘Better Call Saul’ predictably made it along with a fantastic newcomer with 11 nominations, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s ‘Fleabag’, which had not received any nominations for its first season last year.
Under limited series, apart from HBO’s ‘Chernobyl’ nabbing the spotlight, another show that I was happy to see up there with such big names was Netflix’s ‘When They See Us’, the four-episode emotionally jarring depiction of the 1989 Central Park jogger case to which one of the leads, Jharrel Jerome, felt like “The title came to life.”
Milo Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore creeping up on us under lead nominees may count as an inevitable shock, considering the sheer emotional brilliance that the show ‘This Is Us’ and its actors test us viewers with.
Viola Davis is once again up there for her character, Annalise Keating, in ‘How to get away with murder’ which is satisfying to see as she deserves every bit of the Emmy nominations she receives. Speaking of deserving Emmy’s, it’s high time that prime time decided to recognize ‘Bojack Horseman’, after 5 years of downright amazing content, animation and writing.
Although, most of it couldn’t fall under the requirement date for nomination, it was still exciting to see the bone chilling ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ episode, Holly, receive several nominations which might as well have been their darkest episode to date. Blessed be the fruit!
The Bad & The Shocking
Where was ‘Better Things’ in the Emmy nominations 2019? Completely snubbed, of course. The Emmys would hate for us to have better things, literally and metaphorically.
Shockingly enough, after its recent season, ‘Game of thrones’ prevailed with 32 nominations. Considering how poorly the season went, it’s certainly a surprise to see it on the top. This many nominations for season 8 doesn’t only seem like a diaspora for fantasy land (although the technical achievement of the show is unquestionable) but nominating it for categories like best writing is just immensely fallible for thousands of fans including myself. Not bending the knee for this one.
As bothersome it is to see Lena Headey getting nominated for looking out a window and sip wine for an absolute 0.33 seconds in the entire season, names like Gina Rodriguez for her lead role in ‘Jane the virgin’ or Caitriona Balfe for her role in ‘Outlander’ were disregarded once again.
Apart from this, the Emmys are guilty for the worst snub fathomable; Richard Madden. Although the show ‘Bodyguard’ is up in the running for best drama, the lead actor himself was left in the dark despite his emotionally demanding role done to such aptitude.
D’Arcy Carden from ‘The Good Place’ was not even given a single nod, even after the episode “Janet” that was carried to greatness only by her character portrayal was nominated.
Unfortunately, recent enthralling summer debuts like ‘Stranger Things’, ‘Dark‘ or ‘Big Little Lies’ could not be nominated since they fall out of the air date timeline required for a nomination. Other grievances also include as to how ‘Daredevil’s’ hallway fight scene was not accepted for a stunt category because of apparently exceeding the “time limit”.
Lastly, we all love the only Pakistani-American presence up there, Kumail Nanjiani’s for outstanding guest actor in The Twilight Zone, well deserved to say the least.
The Emmy nominations 2019 are more or less not thrilling with quite a few predictable ones and some surprises. The Emmy’s premiere live on 23rd September this year, might just end up tuning in for this one!
